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I became aware before our honeymoon was over that the bottle was seldom far from my husband’s thoughts

Wallis Simpson

Born in 1895 Bessie Wallis Warfield was the only child of a wealthy Baltimore flour merchant . The path of her life changed when her father Teackle was struck down by tuberculosis when she was just a few months old.

He died leaving his widow Alice and daughter dependent on the charity of other family members.

Wallis relied on funds from her uncle Sol Warfield to pay for her education at one of Maryland’s most exclusive boarding schools.

“When she was growing up she had this sense of deprivation,” historian Anne de Courcy states in the programme.

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Earl Winfield Spencer was an alcoholic who beat Wallis

“There was a sense of wanting to climb to where she felt she belonged and I think that’s why money came to mean so much to her.”

Wallis also felt humiliated by their reliance on her uncle’s generosity and became determined that she would escape this indignity as soon as possible. It helps explain why she rushed into marriage when she was barely out of her teens.

The groom was Earl Winfield Spencer, a handsome senior flight instructor for the US navy.

They met in 1916 when Wallis was visiting a cousin in Florida and the airman, who was stationed at a base in Pensacola, swept her off her feet.

Win, as he was better known, was eight years older than his bride and had good career prospects. Wallis was not classically beautiful but at school had been known for her intelligence and sense of humour.

She also oozed confidence and charm and loved to flirt. They were traits that would later captivate Edward, Prince of Wales, and it is easy to understand why he was smitten with Wallis.

Royal biographer Lady Colin Campbell adds: “Men loved her and she loved men. She had sex appeal and was going to use it.”

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Wallis Simpson reveals that her marriage was partly about gaining her independence

In her memoirs Wallis reveals that marriage was as much about gaining her independence , along with reducing the financial burden on her mother , as love.

However there is no doubt she fell head over heels for Spencer and they tied the knot in Baltimore within a year of first meeting.

Wallis threw herself into being a serviceman’s spouse and loved entertaining other officers and their wives but behind the carefree façade she was already hiding a secret.

“I became aware before our honeymoon was over that the bottle was seldom far from my husband’s thoughts or his hands,” she later wrote.

In fact the programme reveals that Spencer was a violent alcoholic with a jealous and sadistic streak, who began beating his new wife.

Her flirtatiousness made matters worse and was often the cause of blazing rows. Wallis was determined to make the marriage work but felt trapped on the naval base in San Diego where her husband later served.

On one occasion after a bout of drinking Spencer crashed his plane into the sea and narrowly escaped with his life.

That incident and other crashes she witnessed left Wallis with a lifelong fear of flying. Her husband was a skilled aviator but his reputation for being a troublemaker meant that the American government declined to send him to active duty in France during the First World War.

“I have been brought up with the ancient belief that marriage represented ultimate fulfilment for a woman,” Wallis wrote.

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“The realisation that my marriage was a failure was more than I could admit to him or myself. I had to keep trying.”

This attitude is at odds with her reputation for trading in husbands when a better prospect came along. But by 1922 she had had enough and resolved to leave Spencer.

She sought the advice of her favourite aunt Bessie Merriman, who pleaded with Wallis to persevere.

At the time divorce meant poverty and shame for a woman but nonetheless when Spencer was posted to China that year Wallis refused to accompany him.

It was a separation not divorce and Spencer hoped that they could reconcile.

In 1924 after two years apart he wrote from Shanghai begging for another chance and Wallis sailed to the Far East.

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American socialite Wallis Spencer in 1919

At first it seemed that Spencer was a reformed character and they had a wonderful time making the most of Shanghai’s hectic social scene.

It was like a second honeymoon for Wallis but soon his demons resurfaced. It was clear that Spencer was still a heavy drinker and that he could not control his temper.

It ha s been claimed that during this time in China Wallis had an affair with an Italian, Count Galeazzo Ciano, and became pregnant.

The resulting abortion is said to have left her infertile. It was not the only scandalous tale to emerge from the Far East. During the abdication crisis it was alleged that Wallis was a Russian spy, that she was selling opium and was studying erotic arts in Shanghai brothels. A so-called “China dossier” is said to have been ordered by the Establishment when it became clear how close Wallis was becoming to the heir to the throne.

By 1925 she was more determined than ever to split from Spencer for good, whatever the consequences. She told him that the marriage was finished although their divorce was not finalised for another two years.

Spencer, who eventually rose to the rank of commander, was to marry four more times before his death in 1950. Wallis moved back to the US but the fallout from her disastrous first marriage was not over. Her benefactor Uncle Sol was furious when he heard about the divorce and cut Wallis out of his will.

She was alone, without financial support and seemingly back to square one living in New York. Then another man came into her life, Ernest Simpson.

He was kind, articulate, well-read and loved to dance and had financial means from his family’s shipping business.

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Wallis Simpson and the Duke of Windsor

Wallis was intrigued by his AngloAmerican background and society contacts in Britain where he had served in the Coldstream Guards.

When he proposed she resolved to put her doubts about marrying again to one side and make a fresh start across the Atlantic.

Perhaps she also feared that she didn’t have many options. Once in London, of course, it wasn’t long before Wallis began moving in royal circles and, when the king-to-be made his desires clear, poor Ernest never stood a chance. And the chain of events that led to the abdication in 1936 was put in motion.

● Wallis: The Queen That Never Was will be screened on Channel 5 tonight at 9pm.